Chapter 257 - 257: Dramatic Irony—Kafka

Guinaifen sat at the edge of her seat, her eyes glued to the progress bar on her screen. She was eagerly waiting for Honkai: Star Rail to finish its latest update. The moment the download bar hit one hundred percent, she clicked the launch icon with overwhelming anticipation.

The loading screen faded, giving way to a cinematic sequence that slowly unfolded before her eyes. A pitch-black corridor filled the screen. The rhythmic, sharp clicking of high heels echoed through the oppressive silence. Slender fingers encased in rose-red gloves gently brushed against the cold metallic walls. With just this brief opening shot, a thick atmosphere of mystery and lethal danger bled through the monitor.

Blaring crimson alarms suddenly shattered the quiet. Panicked voices crackled over a frantic radio transmission.

"All units, take note! Target spotted! I repeat, target spotted!"

"Do not take any chances! Maintain maximum distance!"

"Upon contact, kill on sight!"

As the desperate orders faded into static, bizarre rose-red patterns flickered rapidly across the screen like a hypnotic slideshow. The promotional video's background music began to swell, rising slowly like a dark undercurrent surfacing from the abyss. Then, Kafka's voice echoed out. It carried a heavy hint of mature allure, effortlessly piercing through the suffocating darkness.

"Don't be afraid..."

"Listen to me."

"Are you the one who invited me?"

The camera panned from a wide shot to a tight focus, perfectly showcasing Kafka's enchanting figure as she stepped out of the shadows. As she whispered that final sentence, the lens suddenly zoomed in on her face. Ethereal threads entwined around her spiderweb-patterned gloves. Within her deep, captivating pupils, a brilliant rose-red light glowed. It was eerie, yet it harmonized flawlessly with the deadly elegance of the scene. This single introductory sequence fully displayed her overwhelming charm and the creator's absolute mastery of aesthetics.

The scrolling bullet chat in Guinaifen's livestream exploded into an absolute frenzy.

"Mommy!!!!!!!!!!"

"Mommy is truly a woman who could be my mother!"

"Is this a character PV? It looks incredibly cool!"

"I knew this game felt like it was missing something... it was missing dedicated character trailers!"

"Top-tier production! She is so beautiful!"

Meanwhile, in a completely different location, Kafka and Silver Wolf were naturally oblivious to Guinaifen's chaotic livestream. However, Silver Wolf was a veteran gaming enthusiast of the highest caliber. She had set a high-priority alert on her devices long ago. The exact millisecond Honkai: Star Rail pushed its update, her console pinged with a notification. Having already finished the download, she immediately clicked on the newly released video.

"Oh..." She tilted her head toward Kafka, who was quietly sipping a cup of dark coffee nearby. "They released your character trailer."

"Oh?" Kafka set her coffee cup down on the saucer and leaned over the gamer's shoulder.

After watching the dramatic opening sequence, a highly satisfied curve appeared at the corner of her lips. She swapped her coffee for a glass of red wine, swirling the crimson liquid gently. An elegant, thoroughly pleased smile graced her features.

Silver Wolf, however, gritted her teeth. Her fingers tightened around her controller. "Damn that Leon. Look at these double standards! My Companion Mission was an entire hour of me making an absolute fool of myself, but then he turns around and directs such a gorgeous, high-budget trailer for you?"

It was not a matter of scarcity, but a glaring issue of inequality. Why did she not receive this kind of royal treatment in his game?

On the screen, the trailer continued to play. The classical violin notes of The Four Seasons concerto blended perfectly with a heavy, modern electronic beat. Kafka moved gracefully among her razor-sharp spiderweb threads. She calmly mimed playing an invisible violin as she wove through massive crowds of heavily armed enemies. Every single frame firmly captured the audience's undivided attention, a feast for both the eyes and the ears.

"This web is so fragile, it breaks at a touch."

"What it can shred, for instance..."

Just as her alluring voice trailed off, the swelling background music came to an abrupt, dead halt.

A split second later, the electronic drum beats exploded with deafening force. Along with Kafka's increasingly magnificent combat maneuvers and lethal techniques, the viewers felt their pupils dilate sharply in pure awe.

"Ahhh!" Guinaifen squealed, so excited she nearly jumped straight out of her gaming chair. "This background music is perfectly synced! The exact moment Kafka opens her eyes combined with this massive beat drop... it is unbelievably cool!"

She wondered how Leon managed to produce Kafka's trailer with such cinematic perfection. Seeing this level of quality made her start looking forward to her own eventual character trailer. After all, Leon had explicitly promised that she would be added as a playable character in the future.

Kafka looked at her digital counterpart on the glowing screen. She took a small, measured sip of her wine, the smile in her eyes deepening with genuine amusement. "Hmm... not bad at all. Quite interesting."

The bullet chat and digital gifts in Guinaifen's livestream were going absolutely crazy, flooding the screen in a blur of colors.

"This music is god-tier! Who composed it? I want to kowtow to them right now!"

"Won't we know if we check the credits after the video ends? They have to list the producer!"

"Ahhh, I really love Kafka so much! From today onward, I will be farming Relics for her day and night without sleep!"

The trailer pushed toward its climax. In the footage, Kafka had finally breached the deepest room of the facility.

"Is it you who is peeking at me?"

"Let me see... where is everyone hiding?"

As her sultry voice faded, she raised her twin submachine guns and spun in an elegant, deadly pirouette. Countless silver shell casings rained down beside her high heels, clinking sharply against the floorboards.

The camera angle switched back to a close-up of Kafka's face. She nodded slightly, raised her gloved right hand, and gently released her grip on an imaginary string.

Her eyes snapped open.

A nonchalant voice echoed.

"Boom."

Countless glowing bullet trajectories filled the enclosed space in an instant, weaving a deadly web of lead and light. Seeing this stunning display of violence, the viewers felt their heads buzz with adrenaline. They were completely stunned by the sheer visual spectacle.

"Whoa... this is so incredibly satisfying to watch!"

"The other characters should have similar trailers, right? Leon wouldn't just make a masterpiece like this exclusively for Kafka!"

"I am really looking forward to the rest!"

"Damn it." Silver Wolf stared at the ending screen, grinding her teeth together. "This trailer is so ridiculously well made... I am actually jealous."

Kafka chuckled softly. She put down her wine glass and gently patted the petite hacker on the shoulder. "Do not worry. Leon will not play favorites. Since my character received a video, yours definitely will too."

She could naturally see through Silver Wolf's thinly veiled feelings of envy. After all, the hacker had also been immortalized in the game, but her specific Companion Mission had been entirely different in tone. Although the storyline was undeniably cute and had massively boosted her popularity among the player base, Silver Wolf viewed the entire ordeal as public humiliation. If she had to act like a clown to gain popularity, she would rather not have it at all.

"Hmph..." Silver Wolf snorted coldly, crossing her arms. "If I log into the game later and see that my trailer is nowhere near as good as yours, you are a dead man, Leon."

The smile on Kafka's lips deepened slightly. "Do not worry, it will not be a disappointment." She paused, her tone carrying absolute certainty. "Leon does not play favorites."

In her heart, however, Kafka was secretly quite surprised. Her promotional video was indeed a masterpiece, perfectly showcasing her elegant yet highly dangerous temperament. Yet, her actual interactions with Leon had not been incredibly frequent. How did he manage to understand her core personality so flawlessly? also, despite her reassuring words to Silver Wolf, Kafka could clearly feel a heavy dose of Leon's personal favoritism woven into every frame of the video.

"Things are getting quite interesting..." Kafka murmured under her breath. She gently placed her left hand over her chest, feeling the steady yet faintly excited thumping of her own heartbeat. Her lips curled into a beautifully dangerous arc.

After Kafka's trailer finished its final loop, Silver Wolf successfully logged into the main server. A massive update announcement immediately popped up on her screen. The patch notes detailed the addition of dedicated character trailers for all previously released playable characters, alongside a generous batch of new main story quests and side missions.

Silver Wolf completely ignored the new story content for now and handled straight to her personal character interface. Right there on her profile page, she found the link to her own cinematic trailer.

"'A Bit Interesting'?" She read the title aloud, her brow twitching. "This name is certainly a bit interesting!"

She hovered her cursor over the play button. "If this video turns out to be garbage, just you wait and see how I deal with you, Leon..."

Despite her grumbling, Silver Wolf was bubbling with anticipation. Maintaining her stubborn facade, she finally clicked on the video.

Her trailer immediately proved to be in a completely different stylistic universe compared to Kafka's. If Kafka's video was a mysterious and dangerous night rose blooming in the dark, Silver Wolf's was a vibrant, hyper-kinetic, colorful pixel paradise. Even the background music had completely shifted genres, trading heavy orchestral drops for a light, bouncy chiptune melody that carried a heavy hint of mischievous playfulness.

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